16 Knits For Geeks

Hey everyone,

So being sick last week caused me to neglect writing, but I'm excited to be feeling better (finally!)  And to make up for it I'm going to be sharing an extra post with you all this week, in which I'll be doing an unboxing comparison of October's beauty and lifestyle subscription boxes.  My new format for reviewing them will be all together in one post, in a more simplified form.  That way if you like hearing about beauty it'll be together in one place, and if it's not your thing it'll be easier to avoid.

Announcement!

Another more exciting development this week, that you may have already noticed, is that my blog now has it's own domain!  So you can find me just by typing in LydiaDickson.com into your toolbar!  I'm very excited for this development because it will open new doors for partnerships, since it's seen as a signifier of a serious blogger versus someone who blogs as a hobby.  I hope you all will enjoy the journey with me as I make Lydia's Designs, soon to be Love, Lydia Dickson my full time job.  If you're wondering what to expect, know that it will be more of the same great content with graphics and overall quality that I'm dedicating to constantly improving.  Now, on to today's subject:

16 Knits For Geeks

I've picked 8 categories and and am sharing both an easy and a hard pattern in each.  For those of you thinking ahead, you should be able to complete any of these knits in time for Christmas!  There're no blankets or other huge projects in this post, though if you're set on one scroll all the way down.

Hats

1. Jayne Hat

image from Firefly Wiki

Everyone who loves Firefly knows and loves this iconic hat.  And what's great is it's a fairly easy one to knit.  What you need to know: knitting in the round, basic colorwork
Find the pattern here on Ravelry.

2. Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit - Gimli Inspired Dwarven Helmet and Beard

This hearty dwarven covering will make your look battle ready, or just keep your face warm during the winter.  Either way you'll look awesome.  This pattern isn't free, but it's too beautifully detailed for me not to include.  It's a little more complex requiring: knitting in the round, snap closures, tapestry crochet, and what looks like either color work or double knitting.
You can see more information here on Ravelry.

Stuffed Animals Creations

3. Pocket Sized BMO

This guy is adorable.  This pattern only costs $3, or if you feel adventurous you could even try making your own pattern since BMO is essentially a box with noodle limbs.  Techniques required: i-cord, seaming, cutting and gluing felt, and maybe a touch of colorwork.
Found here on Ravelry.

4. Little Cthulhu

This little guy is crocheted, so it's perfect for branching out from knitting to something new.  He's adorably scary and while complex, not that difficult overall.  Making him requires: crocheting in the round, single crochet stitch, increasing single crochet stitch, decreasing single crochet stitch, double crochet stitch, and chain stitch.
Found here on Ravelry.

Scarves

5. Doctor Who

Another great iconic piece of knitwear, and one that's perfect for the beginner with a bit of patience.  The scarf manages to keep a tediously long strip on knitting interesting with changing colors and widths as you work each stripe.  Requires: changing colors, fringe.
Find it here on Ravelry.

6. Katniss' Cowl

I've been eyeballing this beautiful cowl for a long time, but I think I need to practice more before I'm ready to tackle it.  It's not terribly hard though, and could be modified for a beginner fairly easily so long as close attention is paid to the various sections.  Requires: crochet details, learning interesting stitches like herringbone, and seaming.
Here's a link to the Ravelry page.

Cosplay Items

7. Companion Cube

This little companion cube is perfect for cosplay or your desk.  You could easily size it up too.  The pattern is very simple, but does take: some sewing and seaming by hand to finish.
Find it here on Ravelry.

8. Walking Dead Inspired Zombie Head

I know this pattern isn't intended to be specific to The Walking Dead, but is would work great as a decapitated zombie head, just make the skin green and add blood.  There are lots of different versions of this shown on the pattern page including one modeled after Jack Sparrow.  And the head doubles as a bag, so it's perfect for conventions.  To make this you'll want to know: knitting in the round, i-cord, a bit of hand sewing, and felting.
Take a peek at the pictures here on Ravelry.

Bags

9.  D4 Dice Bag

If you play tabletop games or card games like Magic the Gathering having dice is essential.  This bag is the perfect storage solution that's easy to make.  It requires: hand sewing, seaming, and recommends a zipper closure.
Details here on Ravelry.

10.  Space Invaders Tote

This fun bag takes you back to arcade fun.  You could even alter the pattern a bit to make the bag wider so it could be used for groceries.  Requires: colorwork, reading a chart, and stranding.
It's here on Ravelry.

Kids Items

11. Ninja Turtle Mittens

Wear your favorite Ninja Turtles on your hands, or make them for your friend's kids.  Either way they're perfect for cold weather!  Requires: shaping, hand sewing, and knitting in the round.
Pattern found on Ravelry.

12. Star Wars Knitsabers

These lightsabers are perfect for kids (or grownups) who love to swordfight, but don't want to get in trouble for getting too rough about it.  I love how detailed this pattern is, showing you how to make 4 different authentic lightsabers.  The pattern as written makes 10" lightsabers but you could easily make a longer version to suit your tastes.  Requires: knitting in the round, sewn details, and decreasing.
Find it on Ravelry.

Accessories

13. Iron Man Gauntlets

I love these gauntlets, I'm sure if I had a pair I'd be pretending I could fly all the time!  Perfect for a Tony Stark or Pepper Potts cosplay, or just cooler weather.  Requires: stranding, embroidered details, and seaming.
Find it here on Ravelry.

14. Star Trek Socks

These socks are a more complex project, but perfect for keeping your toes toasty.  It looks like the creator has put a lot of love into making sure everyone can understand their pattern too.  Requires: shaping, stranding, and probably working in the round.
Found on Ravelry.

Sweaters

15. Weasley Monogram Sweater

After reading Harry Potter if you were like me you wanted to wake up to one of these sweaters at the foot of your bed Christmas morning.  It may be a bit more work, but if you get started now you can make this dream a reality for someone you love.  It's not too hard either, I promise!  Requires: intarsia, seaming, duplicate stitch, taking body measurements.
Find it on Ravelry.

16. Wonder Woman Sweater

This pattern takes some dedication to chartwork, but the end product is beautiful.  If you want to feel like an Amazonian warrior just put on this sweater.  Requires: taking body measurements, seaming, colorwork, stranding, and reading charts.
Found here on Ravelry.

Honorary Mention

Afghan Squares

So you really want to make a blanket?  Ok then try this Geek-A-Long with science, math, and many more fandom themed squares too.  Requires: seaming and colorwork.
Science patterns can be found through Ravelry, click through for other patterns.

If you read through this post and don't know what Ravelry is, it's a site to keep track of your past, current, and future knitting projects.  It's been around for quite a while and had built up a great database of patterns found on the internet as well as from books.  They also allow you to give feedback if a project was difficult and in some cases you can even get help from a pattern's creator if you get stumped.  It's a great resource for a beginning or advanced knitter.

If you have a hankering for projects that are less involved or need to get rid of some small bits of yarn you may want to check out my post from last year featuring 70 different no knit/crochet yarn crafts.  There are some great little gifts plus ideas for holiday decor!

That's all for this post, I'll see you again soon.

Love,
Lydia

Update and Geek Tag

Hello everyone,

The week has been crazy and I'm a little behind on everything.  Sorry about that, however, I can say confidently that I've not been dealing with my normal levels if stress for many reasons.  First off I had to make a tough decision about the trip to Texas for one of my best friend's wedding, which I now won't be going at all on.  Then we got some really bad financial news, which isn't our fault, but is going to make our life hard for a while if we can't get it cleared up.  The state is wrongfully claiming we owe them taxes, and after delivering paperwork all summer including filing taxes for a year Bryan was without income besides school funds to prove it, we thought they were finally satisfied.   I suppose they forgot to dismiss the case and sent notice this week that they're garnishing Bryan's wages.  Which really stinks since we just started having to pay double the amount on student loan payments and were stretched thin from that, which resulted in canceling the Texas trip.  Lastly one of Bryan's aunts passed away over the weekend, which was rather unexpected, but due to late stage cancer that we just found out about this week.

But I'm here today for a geek tag from the Geeks and Beauties group I joined recently on Google+.  Questions and answers about fun things in geeky theme.  You can check out some of the videos from the folks who've done it already here and here.

Geek Tag!

1. First Fictional Character Crush.  This is a tough one, but probably Connor from Wren To The Rescue, I've read so many books it's hard to think which might have been first.

2. Dungeons and Dragons or Vampire The Masquerade? I want to simply change this question to "What tabletop role play system do you prefer?" and answer it with Hackmaster New since I've more experiences with alternative systems.

3. Geekiest Item You Own.  LEGOs....I own a bunch of them after working for the Columbus, Ohio store while in college.  It was awesome.  Plus Bryan and I have added to our collection since then.

4. Anne Rice or Stephanie Meyer?  Anne Rice is on my to read list, but hasn't happened yet, so I guess I default to Meyer for now.  *shrugs*

5. First Dr. Who Episode.  Love and Monsters, I caught it the night it was aired in the dorm lounge.  I didn't come back to Doctor Who for a couple more years, possibly partially having to do with the cheesiness of that episode.

6. Star wars or Star Trek?  Both, though Trek wins for being more inclusionary for women and minorities.

7. All Time Favorite Movie.  Amelie, or Pan's Labyrinth, or maybe Hot Fuzz depending on the day.

8. Best Xmas Gift Ever?  Last year hubby and I got a 3DSXL and I love it, so does he.

9. Your Theme Song - Everything by Watashi Wa


10. Name a Perfect Geek Night Out.  For my husband and I this is probably a double date with his brother Davey and fiancee Keri where we go out to dinner and a sci fi movie or to a book trivia program at a local library (we might try a pub trivia thing someday!)


11. If money was no object what would you cosplay?  Bee from Bee and Puppycat


12. Absolute must have book or series?  Harry Potter


13. First Video Game you Played; How old were you?  Well, I know I played Pac Man and Galaga when I was probably 8 on arcade machines with my dad.  As for console games we got an original Nintendo when I was 11 and I started with the classic Duck Hunt/Super Mario Bros.

Image from museumofplay.org

14. Batman Vs Superman - Batman


15. Alien vs predator - *shrugs*  This fandom isn't really my thing


16. Favorite tv show - Favorite that's currently on TV would be Heroes Reborn, my favorite overall is probably Doctor Who (yes I am dissing Moffat here)


17. Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?  Well, I like the world from Harry Potter better, but Tolkien writes so elegantly.  I still have to go with Harry Potter though.


18. Geekiest Thing to your left.  Take your pick, Japanese candy, the bluetooth shutter remote button (photo nerd!), my "Pokedex" checklist and Pokemon tokens from our tabletop role play game, and the Ravenclaw planner.

19. First video game system you owned?  Well, I shared the Nintendo with my brother, but it wasn't much after that I got a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Blue.


20. Favorite Villain of all time? Loki, though I also really enjoy Harley Quinn.

Feel free to respond with your own geek tag!  I tag you all!

Love,
Lydia

I am a Nerd

Hi everyone,

I have a confession to make, I am a nerd, or maybe you'd call it a geek, either way it's about the same.  I love things that are boring to other folks and though I haven't talked about it much here I am unashamed in my passion for them.  I just thought it was time to say that here too.

Today Bryan and I had a conversation about how a being would theoretically evolve with two hearts and how those hearts would function. Many animals with multiple hearts probably had them evolve along with gills.  Would one control blood flow to the left side of the body and the other the right?  If so when a heart failed the individual might lose a leg and arm, but still go on living.  Perhaps the second heart was there to give the individual more energy reserve for purposes of something like the regenerative abilities.  #TimeLords #Centaurii #Science?

We recently discussed how a roleplay system we really enjoy (Hackmaster New) has neglected to introduce information for all the various cleric faiths they promised in the rulebook.  We want to play another campaign, but we may have to adapt the information we have to make something new.  Since we have the opportunity we can put a trinity of gods in place, perhaps sun, moon, and star/void and use that instead of the usual alignments.  Add in another element to craft them by classifying the themes into color families to mimic the values of Magic the Gathering's colors to create the flavor of each cleric's personality.  I have a feeling everyone in the party may be itching to play a cleric character.

We play with ideas like these often, when we're not playing games of Civilization V together, or gathering with brothers for Pokemon roleplay nights (yes we pretend we're trainers, trying to be the very best), or over at Bryan's parents for Sci Fi Night, making art about time travel, going to a LEGO convention, talking physics with Davey, or history with each other, meeting with comic book discussion groups, and playing Brain Dots on our phones in bed together when we should be trying to sleep.

As a result my personal fashion is more Felicia Day than Coco Chanel, though I do love some vintage style.  It may just be influenced by the 1950s as well as steampunk Victorian worlds.  I end up being so eclectic, and I hope I can make that work in a more minimalist way.  It's taking some time to put things together for my fall capsule wardrobe, but I'm excited to see what happens.  And I'll finally have managed to go through all my clothes and can actually go sell stuff (I've been putting this off for the summer) and donate slightly more loved items.

So this is just a bit of my personal love letter to all the geeks out there, and there's probably more where this same from.  For now I'll wait until Wednesday to share more, when I'll be back with another installment of graphic novel reviews.  See you then!

Love,
Lydia

Days 155-161 New things

Welcome everyone,

Blog News
So this week has been a busy one between a bit of work, family time, and various other projects.  For starters I'm thinking about making some changes to my blog.  I'm sure you all have noticed that I've been talking about much more than art lately, and while I expect art to be a continued focus I am contemplating giving my blog a new title to reflect to many aspects of what I feature.  I'll be brainstorming and getting back with an announcement about that as well as an accompanying new look for the page design soon.  As it is I'm trying a new format here with added subject headings to help you find the sections you're more or less interested in reading about easier.  I'm also looking at joining a blogger community or two to help me come up with some fun idea for my writing and get to know more bloggers and readers!  I'd love to tell some more stories and allow more creative details from my to be shown to you all.

Art
Next up there's lots of new things on the horizon as I'm working on a new art history themed project that I don't want to share too much about just yet.  However, I can say that it will involve some fun learning experiences and lots of research and work on my part.  This week I've been laying out some ideas, but should have introductory content ready by late June or early July.  If it all goes well it could be a very big series of work for me, which would be a great new challenge.

I've messed with bits and pieces of projects, and should have some finished items to show soon.  Though it will depend on what projects I'm able to focus on next week.  The last few weeks I've been more focused on photography with my new camera and all.  Then I'll have inventory going on at Anthro next week too, so things will be extra busy!

Pinterest
I'm working on the Pinterest project too, and will have the finished post and tutorial up next week, because I wanted to put a little more polish on some of the photos and have been delayed in finishing it this week.  It's coming along well though!

Games
Otherwise I've been working on getting a Pokemon RPG game started (yes the kind with dice) along with a bunch of family members.  It'll be a fun summer game with each of us writing our own stories of what kind of trainers we'll be an my husband acting as GM (game master) throwing different scenarios and Pokemon our way.  We'll be putting aside our bi-weekly Magic games for it since one brother who's home for the summer dislikes playing big group card games, so it's a nice trade off.  Plus we get another "brother" to play too, giving our group people 5 plus our GM.  Normally I cook when we have our Hackmaster RPG nights, but for this I think we'll be gathering at Bryan's parents with the whole family for dinner.  Because, yes, they still have family meals....it's really quite nice!

Besides that we're still working on the randomized game of Pokemon Platinum, which we are approaching the halfway point of now.  So many silly things happen on the random settings, it's just great.  My Charizard managed to have about the best move set ever with powerful fire, ice, flying and ground moves!  And then there's my poor Drifloon, which will never evolve because if it does his ability will change to normalize, making all its ghost moves fairly useless.

Books
During April I read The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, which I enjoyed, though not as much as I did Pavilion of Women.  I'd still recommend it, but I think I simply found it less relatable in some ways.

In April/May I also read Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, which is a sci fi book with a really interesting story.  I don't want to give too much away, but some strange things happen on a remote planet with some well thought out ideas about possible first contact with another life form.

Additionally in May I read The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Hahn Beer.

It's the non-fiction account of a Jewish woman who married a Nazi and managed to stay alive in Germany throughout WWII.  I found it particularly interested because she was very well educated and during the war acted as a passive housewife.  Only after the war could she go back to her chosen vocation, shocking her husband and being a strong precursor to the feminist movements that were to come in the next few decades.

Now I'm a quarter of the way through The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett a book that examines the idea of parallel earths, and also just picked up Pinterest Power by Jason Miles and Karen Lacey, and book on how to use Pinterest in new and interesting ways.  I'll write more on them once I finish them!

Conclusion
As you can see I probably could have broken this into 3 different posts and gone into more detail, but I'm always working on new ideas and am horrible about simply writing the small posts frequently so I won't overwhelm you all with information!  For now the heading should help, but it's something I'm trying to work on, so keep giving me feedback and I'll see you all again very soon.

Love, Lydia

Days 87-101

Hi everyone!

My blog has now been going for over 100 days!  Exclamation points for everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not enough posts to go around, but I'll explain a bit about some of the delays there.

I've been applying to jobs still....something like 8-10 since my last post in fact.  I've also had 2 interviews since then.  One was for a position that once I found out a bit more about I wasn't so interested in anymore.  The other sounds really good, and I've made it to the second round with them, so sometime in the next few weeks I'll get a date for an in person interview.  Besides all that I got a call from Anthropologie yesterday asking me to come work as a temp for their opening, so for about 2 weeks I'll get to work for them, which should be a pretty good little gig.  I can guess they don't want to hire me for anything other than temp work since I can't wear their clothing, which is a bit frustrating, but I have better things to worry about than that.

My parents are preparing to sell their house and hope to move to a one story place in the near future, so I'll be heading to Roanoke at some point soon to help them paint and pack things if possible.  I certainly don't mind painting, especially while the weather isn't too hot yet.  I have an old bedroom of things to go through there and decide what I want and don't.  Meanwhile a storage room at our house is pretty full of boxes from our old apartment, I sense some spring cleaning in my future.  I've already started since I wanted things to look great for my drawing lesson last week.  I just need to take the pictures to share with you all now that my studio and living room are looking up to snuff finally.

The drawing lesson went really well; the kid's a typical teenager and deciding if lessons are something they want is the hardest part.  For now the mom is making sure they at least try it for a while.  I worked with them to see what objects they could draw from life and then started on some basic shading techniques and went over pencil qualities.  I think this week we'll talk about lines, texture, and continue with shading.  I keep thinking I wish I had the design textbook I'd used for my design I & II classes at Virginia Western because it had such great examples of various elements of design and art that's more approachable for learners.  It's one of the few textbooks I ever sold, and of course I'm now regretting it.  I started looking for it on Amazon today without any luck.

This spring has been keeping me so busy I don't think I'm going to have the time to plant a little vegetable garden as I was hoping.  My allergies have been pretty bad the past few days now that the trees are starting to leaf out.  Everything is light green, white, and pink, and birds are constantly singing outside out windows.  I think some have even made a nest in our gutters!  I can't help admitting how lovely it is despite all the symptoms the pollen gives me.  I'm hoping to start a spring watercolor piece based on some fond memories I have of driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway in past seasons.

On the other hand I've spent more time on various games with family, board games with just Bryan and I and his parents the past two weekends, Hackmaster games with Stephen, Bryan and BG, and Magic the Gathering with Bryan, BG, and their dad.  Then inspired by Twitch Plays Pokemon (a massive chatroom controlled collective that has played through of various Pokemon titles) Bryan suggested playing through one of the games set to random for most variations of items and creatures in the game.  So Bryan and I had most of his brothers along with one of their girlfriends join us in playing Pokemon Platinum, on emulators with random settings.  It's proved to be quite interesting, and we've been playing in a way that keeps us more or less working on the same part of the game at the same time, by waiting for the majority (5 of the 6 of us) to beat a gym before going on to the next one.  We've had some fun chat on Facebook thanks to it, which is really nice since we aren't all playing it in the same city or even state.  I can't say enough sometimes about how much I love being a part of Bryan's family, I'm really thankful for all of them.

More tomorrow.
Love, Lydia